Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Founder, Founder, Founder At Upfront we talk regularly about how 70% of our investment decision in Seed and A rounds is the quality of the entrepreneur and 30% is the quality of the idea. Having recurring revenue allows you to keep the original purchase price down, which in turn increases sales. Here are my views … 1.

Security 247

Security Los Angeles Silicon Valley Video 247

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

In Rob Go’s words: For seed and Series A deals, investors will also need to see a high-potential team with founder/market fit , a large and attractive market opportunity , and a business model with increasing returns to scale. Example of Baremetrics revenue per user benchmarks. Software as a Service (Saas) benchmarks.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 4, 2024

Our deep dive into the world of email newsletters unveils tactical strategies for transforming subscribers into revenue-generating assets. As the founder of The Clikk, Russell has witnessed the evolving landscape of newsletters, recognizing them as a powerful intersection of content marketing and direct response promotion.

Revenue 96

Revenue Advertising Email ChatGPT 96

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

In a previous post , I covered the three main drivers of growth: Paid, Sticky, and Viral. Let’s look at a viral growth company, like Facebook. If you are building a large, viral, ad-support consumer internet property, you just want to go big! They’re off to cross the chasm. As soon as possible!&#

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2016

The good news is that everyone expects entrepreneurs to make mistakes, since founders explore uncharted territory. In fact, investors recognize that founders usually learn more from mistakes than from success, so a well-explained startup failure can improve their odds of funding the next time around.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Forecast Angel Investor 120

Software By Rob

AUGUST 5, 2010

You’re a startup founder, whether actual or aspiring. Business books are a founder’s learning tool. The problem is that the premise of all of them – whether true or false – is irrelevant to you as a startup founder. Find like-minded startup founders and get to know them. Also a student of reading.

Founder 78

Founder Startup Software Review Software 78

The Next Web

DECEMBER 12, 2013

But now that we’ve entered a mobile, social era, commerce companies have to find engaging ways to keep customers involved and coming back to get the most bang for their buck,” says Manish Chandra , founder and CEO of Poshmark. “So So many commerce startups get it wrong – focusing on customers before community.”.

Mobile 136

Mobile Silicon Valley Viral Technical Review 136

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

Common failures I see along these lines include: solutions that are "nice to have" but don't address painful problems; a business model that lacks a means for bringing in revenue; and a founder who has turned a blind eye toward his or her competitors. Validated pricing and a sufficient revenue stream.

Exit Strategy 120

Exit Strategy Technical Review Distribution Viral 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2016

Similarly, mentioning viral marketing without specifics won’t assure fundability. Even social entrepreneurs need milestones, quantifiable results, and revenue to sustain their value. Some founders are so passionate about their solution that they forget to lead with an explanation of the customer value equation.

Technical Review 134

Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence Angel Investor 134

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

by Jon Leighton, Director of digital agency iResources and founder of neatly.io. Your revenues are declining or you don’t have any revenue at all! Revenues don’t appear overnight; even the greatest success stories had to work hard to start getting traction and growth. He is also the founder of neatly.io

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Architecture Revenue Channel 157

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

5 great viral marketing campaigns (and what small businesses can learn from them!) - crowdSPRING Blog , September 13, 2010 At crowdSPRING we talk a great deal about how we can leverage our limited marketing resources to drive traffic and revenues and build strong community. How To Pick A Co-Founder , by Naval Ravikant (Venture Hacks).

Technology 191

Technology Product San Francisco CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

The founders and team develop a huge confidence level that appropriately increases risk-taking, output, expansion, deals, revenue, press and everything that is a consequence of initial successes. Or some teams who start driving revenue paper over the fact that they aren’t acquiring customers profitably. Often it doesn’t.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Vesting Dilution Europe 150

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. million in revenue a year. . Qualified.io

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

GrowthHackers founder and former Head of Growth at Dropbox, Sean Ellis , coined the term: “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. In his course on Growth Mindset (part of CXL’s Growth Marketing Minidegree ), WeTheFuture.org founder John McBride describes three key components of a successful growth marketer: 1.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Haystack

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

For Spotify’s core business, which charges consumer subscriptions for the ability to have unlimited mobile access to an enormous music library, music as the audio source converts high engagement minutes into recurring revenue via subscriptions. market by launching in connection with Facebook viral invites? Remember Stitcher?

Acquisition 134

Acquisition Media Audio Technical Review 134

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2020

But the insights I see from her book and elsewhere are equally applicable to startup founders of all ages, and businesses of all ages. Viral marketing campaigns to lure new customers will cost you big money. Look for operations that are hogging resources without generating significant revenue. Look for hidden sources of revenue.

Viral 430

Viral Revenue Distribution Cloud 430

ConversionXL

APRIL 4, 2017

Virality and Referral. Virality is the key lever of many of the most famous growth examples: Dropbox, Uber, Facebook, Hotmail. If, for every customer you acquire, you can acquire 1-10 more with viral loops , you can spend a lot more on acquiring that first customer, right? Predictable Revenue. Unbounce blog.

Channel 118

Channel Marketing Viral SEO 118

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

I talked to Adam Hempenstall, founder and CEO at BetterProposals , who has been using freemium for three years for his SaaS product: “Honestly, I think it was a mistake. You’re not going to go viral Dropbox style, so having a freemium model doesn’t really work. Let’s face it—everyone likes free stuff. Youtube ads. $1

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

mashable.com

OCTOBER 27, 2010

The site is run by Mercy Corps , which intends to help “small businesses grow faster, generate more revenue, and employ more people.&# I've also recently created a private email discussion list for technology company founders at FounderList.com to network, share, and learn from each other. What will you find here?

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Social Media Technical Review Social Network 94

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

The company with no revenue and a $150k burn rate that raised $2.5 I often wonder why they didn’t find a way to bring in some revenue to cover costs. Newsflash – if you had $75k revenue / month you’d have 8 months cash left in stead of 4. I see this weekly. million and has 4 months cash left. Fair point.

Burn Rate 412

Burn Rate Dilution Revenue Valuation 412

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Airbnb founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia had difficulty securing funding, so they launched a mini project to build some funds and catch investors' attention. Using this capital , the founders launched and enjoyed exponential growth in their first year, with 10K users and thousands of listings. Photo Credit: Jack Underwood.

Entrepreneur 127

Entrepreneur Bankruptcy Southern California South Africa 127

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

AUGUST 5, 2011

I have seen Nick La , founder of webdesignerwall.com , go from one website to five successful website launches in multiple but related niche markets. Finding advertisers and maximizing revenue can become hard work at times. Design, usability, code and trends blog for web designers. TextLinkAds.com : Web Ad Marketplace What?

Web 89

Web HTML Software Review SQL 89

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Great marketing is required to generate revenue and grow every business, especially new businesses which have no brand recognition nor loyal customer base. Usually these are described as revenue growth drivers, as outlined in a new book, “ The Revenue Accelerator: The 21 Boosters to Launch Your Startup ,” by Dr. Allan Colman.

Marketing 333

Marketing Revenue Matching Viral 333

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

They realized for them this was dumb because people didn’t want to use up their credits so viral adoption wasn’t happening quickly enough. How has the viral coefficient been for you? Gregg gave us specifics on how viral adoption has worked. The viral adoption went to 15-20 per share action.

Viral 303

Viral Investment Bankers Video Business Model 303

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

It has been awesome, flattering, and humbling to see that post went viral and has been seen by so many thousands of people — mainly aspiring entrepreneurs — and has been translated into many languages. Have amazing co-founders who are better at what they do than you could ever be. I’m a deeply emotional person.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

ConversionXL

APRIL 29, 2013

In this case study on Kissmetrics , Garret Moon, founder of Todaymade.com talks about how they targeted their 85% (or higher) bounce pages as a place to offer relevant lead magnets, which lead to doubling their optin rates within 7 days. Viral/ Emotional State. image credit. ” The result? Full case study here.

Campaign 130

Campaign Email Framework Clickthrough 130

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

For the first-time entrepreneur or founder looking for seed stage funding, this circle can be especially difficult to penetrate. Brad Feld: Feld is co-founder and managing director of Foundry Group, a Boulder, Colorado venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investments ranging from $250,000 to $500,000.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Between January 2015 and January 2016, we grew our platform Slidebean from $1K to $20K in monthly recurring revenue. Getting the first tracks of revenue is one of the toughest processes of building a startup. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): The potential revenue that you’ll be receiving from a given user.

Revenue 60

Revenue Channel Acquisition Campaign 60

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 19, 2012

I don’t know exactly when the agency to product transfer happened at Buddy, or at what point you can start calling yourself a software company (when service revenues dip below subscription/license revs?), Our current focus is on creating sticky, super viral applications that help users get more out of Facebook and other social media.

Software 106

Software Media Social Media Advertising 106

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 19, 2012

Avoid the 50/50 co-founder model – here’s why – [link]. SaaS products aren’t viral – [link]. Internet Ad Revenues Rise to Historic $17 Billion in First Half 2012, Up 14% Over Half-Year 2011, According to IAB – [link]. Then Act | crowdSPRING Blog - [link]. Want to get a job at a startup? Show them WHY.

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2013

You can see it in the founders’ eyes. They want the perfect feature set, the PR company lined up to do the perfect press release, they want maximum coverage, rave reviews, viral adoption and they want to sit back and then wait for the signups to come roaring in. I hear about it in every first product release.

Viral 371

Viral PR Lean Founder 371

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2021

Yet there are big challenges to hyperlocal, at least for consumer-focused hyperlocal startups, according to Sean Barkulis, Founder of UPlanMe, whose initial consumer-focused business model was an early casualty, writing in Street Fight : Every site requires real curated local content to engage users.

Finder 361

Finder Startup Curation Seattle 361

mashable.com

MAY 24, 2011

Mobile commerce revenues may still pale in comparison to their ecommerce brothers, but we’re already seeing signs of mobile commerce’s potential. I’m the founder of Movylo Shop (www.movyloshop.com), a SaaS mobile commerce solution. ); // Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Twitter to get started! My 2 cents.

Mobile 90

Mobile Web Social Media Software Review 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2013

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. These founders need a reality check on what recognized brand names have spent to reach that threshold, and how long it is likely to take.

Marketing 265

Marketing Viral SEM Startup 265

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Google Analytics is definitely better at measuring traffic,” noted Dan McGaw, the founder and CMO of Effin Amazing. There are other use cases, too, such as app developers seeking to maximize the value of users for a viral game with a lifespan of days or weeks. Other digital marketing experts I asked seconded his opinion. Conclusion.

Analytics 119

Analytics Technical Review Acquisition Retention 119

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. million in revenue a year. . Qualified.io

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50